[concert notes] NEWS QUARTETTO Tour, Hiroshima 160528

I haven’t posted concert notes or reports in years, but I find myself having a lot of time today so let’s talk about NEWS and their QUARTETTO Tour.

I went to the Saturday Hiroshima show on May 28 with two friends. I should probably mention now that while we all like them, NEWS is not the main fandom for any of us. I’m a Kisumai fan, one friend is also a Snowman fan and the other is one of my best friends from college. This friend just moved to Japan and was living with me when I was really starting to get into Johnny’s, so Johnny’s-wise, she only knows Kisumai and NEWS with a smidgen of Arashi and KAT-TUN.

As a venue, I like Hiroshima’s Green Arena a lot. It’s easy access by street car, it’s not massive, and the stadium seating means that even short little me doesn’t have to worry about being able to see. In case you’ve never been, it’s good to note that Green Arena takes out the first 10 rows of stands for concerts. Ticket said row 17, but it was really like row 7.

There was the main stage, a middle stage and a back stage, all connected with the usual cross walkways and outer walkways.

There were some interesting costumes this year. The first one looked like layering of rugs and all I could think about was how hot they must be. Then under the rugs turned out to be these highlighter yellow costumes that look similar to what Japanese construction workers wear. It was an interesting choice considering they sang both チュムチュム and KAGUYA in them.

Can I tell you how happy I was to hear チェリッシュ? ^_______^ Waaaa~~~~~~~~~~i

Gotta say that when I listened to the album, I wasn’t a huge fan of the solos this year. Thankfully, except for Shige’s, the performance helped a little. For Shige’s solo, I was so distracted by the Jrs being in head-to-toe unitards with flowers and stars on their heads that I didn’t really know what to think of the performance as a whole. Koyama’s solo was nice with all the wa and Japanese influence. It reminded me of the KAGUYA PV. Massu’s solo was okay, but with his, I was distracted by one of the Jrs. Of the Jrs touring with NEWS this year, one in particular stands out dance wise and since he’s not one of the MADE members, I have no clue who he is, but he’s really good. Tego’s solo was just him in a chair and a mic. Simple but breathtaking. Getting to hear Tego live is one of the best things about going to see NEWS in person.

By the way, back to costumes for just a second, I really liked the denim costumes they wore from Touch to the MC… especially Koyama’s~~~~ Plus he wore glasses. I turned to my friend and was like, “He just reminded me why I liked him so much in college.” orz

…I totally don’t remember what they talked about during the MC. SIGH~ This is why I usually go to concerts armed with a notebook. I hope it comes back to me later.

At the end of the MC, they walk down to the middle stage where a large version of the music box has been placed. They bring out the actual music box that’s being sold as one of the concert goods and wind it up. Koyama holds his mic to it so we can hear 愛言葉 playing but then Tegoshi comments on something and Koyama needs his mic to reply. They go back to the music box but only catch the last few notes to the song so they wind it back up and try again. Same thing basically repeats itself until Shinge’s like “HEY. REMEMBER HOW THIS IS SUPPOSED TO GO? WE REHEARSED IT EVEN. :/“

Tego laughs and goes “WOW. Look! There’s a music box here! I wonder what song it plays!” They successfully play the whole song and someone else is like “Man! That makes me want to sing! How about the rest of you (the audience)? Great! Let’s sing together!” We sang the chorus together a few times and then the actual song came on and the members sang the full thing.

There’s a line in 愛言葉 that gives me all the feels. It’s in the first verse but it goes, そのありったけ くれた愛だけ 強くなれたから ここまで来たよ だから君へ全力で愛(かえ)すよ Basically, it’s saying “We made it here because you gave us all the love you had and that made us stronger, so from here on out, we’ll do everything to return the favor/love. T-T Just that one line alone reminds me of everything NEWS has gone through since their debut and how hard they had to fight to stick around. Ugh. FEELINGS~~~~~

Another song that gets me teary is 星をめざして. I remember when they first came back with this song after Uchi and Kusano left. There’s something about it that just makes me think everything is going to be alright. When they came back in 2012, I still got that same feeling when they sang 星をめざして even though I hadn’t felt that way about チャンカパーナ. Added bonus is how pretty all the penlights look doing the hand motions for the chorus.

Alright. Now for the QUARTETTO album, aside from the singles, my absolute favorite song was シリウス. I love everything about it (although I did wonder who Slender was). I was super excited to see it in concert… until they came out on segways and I just stared and when D: I already don’t care about hoverboards/segways and they didn’t serve any purpose really. The only redeeming moment was when Koyama squatted down on his and Massu pulled him around the middle stage. That was cute. Other than that, I’d like to never see those again.

Bleh. :/

On to happier things, when they came around on carts, Koyama saw my uchiwa and did the shaka for me. XD He’s so good about noticing things like that.

NYARO!!! Last year was the first tour I never made it to so all the songs off that album were new to me and NYARO has been on repeat since the concert.

And then for ヒカリノシズク, they had the rising platforms around the outer walkways and we had Massu in front of us. XD My friend was wondering if they gave preference to seats based on who is listed as your favorite member on your FC. This is such a beautiful song. Love it.

I need to remember to bring a towel to all of NEWS concerts. There was some regret to be felt when I didn’t have one for 恋祭り. Sad face.

Overall, loved the show. Because I don’t actively follow NEWS and their members, I sometimes forget how much I enjoy them and their songs, but then I’ll go to one of their shows and I’m smiling, I’m crying, I’m laughing, it’s a roller coaster of emotions. It always hits me how amazing they are. Several weeks after the concert and I’m still listening to their stuff.

And my friend from college told me she now understands why I like going to concerts so much. ^_____^b I’m taking her with me to one of Kisumai’s shows this upcoming tour. WIN.

Wow, it seems like it would be great to see the show in Hiroshima Green Arena! Judging from tour documentary filming, I've always wanted to go there, but it's a bit far for me. XD; I saw the show in Nagoya and Tokyo Dome, and I agree that it was a really fun concert! Koyama's glasses in the denim outfit were super cute, too. And the music box segment seems totally different than what they did at the venues I went to XD They really are amazing performance, and those lyrics in Aikotoba are really moving to me, too ;___;

I'm really glad your friend enjoyed it, too! It's always a good feeling to get new people into Johnny's. XD;

Green Arena is one of my favorite venues (along with YokoAri and Kobe World Kinen Hall). ^^b After I heard about the live symphony I wish I'd gone to one of the Tokyo shows. Would have loved to see that.

And ugh. The denim outfit already had me at his fur hood but then there were the glasses too and >.<

The music box segment I saw clearly was not the way it was supposed to go. XD Shige was like "Can we move on already?? How many times am I gonna have to rewind this thing?"

I'm glad she liked it so much too. I was a little worried since the whole concert culture can be intimidating, but she kind of just hung back, observed, and after told us, "That was fun. I get it now." I hope she likes Kisumai. She hasn't really seen them since Fire Beat.

Awesome! I really want to go there someday (I love Hiroshima in general, it's just so damn far for me XD), so thanks for the notes about seating, too! And yeah, the live orchestra was super cool. Hopefully it will get on the DVD, though I heard there was recording at Hiroshima?

Ahahaha Koyama's was super cute! It looked really good on him. I really liked all of them but Shige's; his really didn't seem to fit as well with the others?

Ahaha that sounds really amusing, though. |D;;; poor Shige.

That's really awesome! I think it's a lot less intimidating with someone who really knows what they're doing there, and it seems like it was a great experience for her. I bet she'll like them; they always have really good shows just from a production value standpoint, even if you don't follow the group, in my opinion.

By the way, I really thought we were friends on LJ for a long time now, but apparently not, so I friended you? I hope that's okay, haha.

I regret never managing to see them! But I never manage T&T or Ebi either, lol, so I guess they're in good company. But they do seem like such a fun group to go and see. And definitely, the groups you aren't certain are going to make it are the ones you end up having all the ridiculous feelings for. Like I love Kisumai so much it's stupid, and sometimes I cry over them bc they're such awesome adults, but it's Ebi who makes me lose it on a regular basis, just because I was SO SURE we were going to lose them. NEWS is like that, with so many points where you think oh this must be the end, and then they pull through somehow. I hope they last forever with Koyama as their leader.